Posts Tagged ‘sustainable transport’

On Friday 20th September at 12:30pm come and hear author Greg Foyster speak about his inspiring pedal-powered detour from the rat race – Changing Gears – at The Sun Bookshop in Yarraville.

Changing Gears is a high-spirited adventure book charting Greg Foyster’s remarkable, life-transforming cycling challenge he undertook with his girlfriend Sophie from Hobart to Cairns on a quest to find out if we can be happier with less.

Cycling for more than 8 months and 6500 kilometres, Greg and Sophie conducted over 80 in-depth interviews with lone visionaries and engaged communities alike, all seeking a more sustainable life. There’s the barefoot monk who walked from Gold Coast to Townsville with only three robes and an alms bowl, the man who lived in the bush for 20 years without electricity and went on ‘historical treks’ using 18th century tools and clothing, the ‘modern swagman’ who wandered the highway for three decades, and many more DIY downshifters with fascinating stories to tell.

Greg tells a riveting yarn – engaging, self-effacing and with many laugh-out-loud moments. The 6586km bike expedition was a million miles from Greg’s comfortable former lifestyle as an ad man – the furthest he’d cycled in one sitting was 50km and the longest he’d been in a tent was three days at a music festival. Along the way he confronted his own character flaws, contended with bum blisters, tasted road kill and got by on only two changes of clothing.

Greg and Sophie are now on a 60-day, 2000-kilometre pedal-powered book tour, visiting 30 bookshops from Melbourne through regional VIC, ACT & NSW before finishing in Sydney in mid November. Don’t miss out on this chance to hear Greg and Sophie talk about their fascinating stories of life on the road.

How can ideas from complex systems and multiple scales inform the governance and decision-making around transport systems and infrastructure?

The focus of this Emergence Meetup will be a follow-up to the previous month’s theme of urban planning and design, but this time applied to transport systems in particular. We believe this is a timely theme given the current debate around several possible major transport infrastructure investments in Melbourne that may shape our region for decades to come.

Dr Russell Thompson will join us to give a talk on “Investigating sustainable transport in Melbourne using information portals”. This will provide illustrations of how we can discover how sustainable our local areas are using publicly available databases and analysis tools such as the VISTA portal, ABS Census and VicRoads CrashStats.

Tony Smith’s presentation will be focused on the western tunnel portal of the proposed East-West motorway, and consequent disruption of showcase areas of Royal Park West, significant Parkville West housing assets and ‘black comedic duplication of the lower Moonee Ponds Creek disaster zone’.

After presentations and discussion we expect to head to a nearby cafe/restaurant for those interested in a meal and further conversation.

EcoCentre is all charged up about hosting an EV Festival in St Kilda on Sunday 24 Feb.

Here’s your chance to test drive a range of electric cars and cool E-bikes (pre-registration necessary for cars). Get up close and personal with low-emissions motoring and easy cycling technology – the future of private transport. Let’s embrace EV’s in urban Melbourne, like so many other parts of the globe that are striving for healthier cities.

Experts will give short talks at the Festival on related topics such as: -How to recharge an electric vehicle for free using solar panels -How to get your head around technology issues, including range, speed, charging and so on -Pricing and trends

Joan Manuel Fernandez Mendoza is PhD candidate from The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). His studies focus on the life cycle assessment of urban transport infrastructures.

He is researching different types of infrastructures required for different modes of transportation (i.e., sidewalks and urban squares for pedestrians/cyclists, streets for motorized vehicles, charging systems for electric vehicles, refuelling systems for conventional cars, etc). The aim is to develop guidelines and criteria for the promotion of sustainable and eco-friendly designs that minimize the environmental burden of the built environment of cities related with personal mobility. Joan will also share his experiences about living in Barcelona, a leader in urban form and sustainable city design.

There is one month to go to nominate our local cycling individuals and communities to be acknowledged for their efforts in the 10th Australian Bicycling Achievement Awards. Maybe you know of a local advocate, bike shop, school, educational institution, or bicycle-friendly local business that promotes cycling and goes that extra mile. Or have you been to an inspirational cycling event that deserves recognition. The Awards will be presented at a ceremony in Canberra in early 2012 that will attended by federal politicians and representatives from national organisations and peak bodies in health, transport and the bicycle industry.

Australian Bicycling Achievement Awards Nominations Awards nominations can be made online or via a form downloaded from: www.cyclingawards.com.au Please contact the Cycling Promotion Fund on (03) 9863 8646 or email office@cyclingpromotion.com.au if you have any additional questions about making a nomination.

Zero Carbon Moreland are running a three month long sustainable transport campaign from Feb-April. Each month they will be emphasising a different transport theme – and in this month the theme is public transport and sustainable car use. See what information and events are on below and get involved!

Richard Canny presents a compelling demonstration of the near future of the family car. Canny is CEO of TH!NK, the Norwegian company that produced its first prototype TH!NKCity electric car in 1991. TH!NK is a car company that aims to change the way people think about cars, by designing emission free and highly efficient modern-city vehicles to meet consumer needs, producing environmentally friendly vehicles in a small-scale ‘low carbon’ production centre.

Shai Agassi, founder of Better Place, shares his inspired vision of freeing cars from oil, reducing harmful exhaust, and ushering in a new era of sustainable transportation. He will discuss the economic factors, industry dynamics, geopolitical pressures, and mounting environmental concerns that are combining to drive this profound change, as well as the challenges we face in realising this vision.

Interested in encouraging active and healthy lifestyles, improving staff morale, managing parking demand and reducing the environmental footprint of your company or organisation?

Don’t miss this great opportunity to gain practical advice and information on innovative policies and practices used by companies to encourage staff to cycle.

Topics covered:

Travel Planning: How to do it and why (Department of Transport, Sustainable Transport Branch)

End of trip facilities for bicycles: From planning to maintenance (National Australia Bank)

Encouragement and incentives: Policies and guidelines which work (City of Yarra)

Cycling as a tool for team building and improving staff morale (Superpartners)

Setting up a bicycle fleet (Cycling Promotion Fund)

This seminar is held as part of the Ausbike Trade Show which is only open to members of the bicycle industry. Participants of the seminar will gain exclusive access to the Ausbike Trade Show to check out the newest bicycles, accessories and cycling gear.

When: Monday 17 August 2009, 8:00 am – 9:00 am, Followed by a tour of the Ausbike Trade Show